1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of handheld computers. In particular, the present invention relates to an efficient computer program application activation method and system.
2. Related Art
Electronic systems and circuits have made a significant contribution towards the advancement of modern society and are utilized in a number of applications to achieve advantageous results. Numerous electronic technologies such as digital computers, calculators, audio devices, video equipment, and telephone systems facilitate increased productivity and cost reductions in analyzing and communicating data, ideas and trends in most areas of business, science, education and entertainment. Electronic systems designed to produce these results are often portable devices such as a palmtop personal digital assistant (PDA) that perform a variety of functions. PDAs usually require the activation of computer program applications to perform these functions. Traditionally, a user is required to use two hands and multiple input mechanisms to activate a palmtop computer application.
As the components required to build a computer system have reduced in size, new categories of computer systems have emerged. One of the new categories of computer systems is the hand held or “palmtop” computer system. A palmtop computer system is a computer that is small enough to be held in the hand of a user and is often “palm-sized.” One of the most significant benefits of a palm top computer is mobility. The mobility typically permits a user to utilize the device when traveling away from a fixed location. A user is often engaged in other activities and the easier a hand held computer is to use the easier it is for a user to continue to perform the other activities while using the palmtop computer.
Palmtop computer systems are often used as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) to implement various Personal Information Management (PIM) applications such as an address book, a daily organizer, and electronic notepads, to name a few. Even though palmtop computer systems are very small, they typically provide diverse functionality and their capabilities are constantly increasing. A variety of different computer program applications are typically included in a hand held computer and as the computational power and memory capabilities of a hand held computer increase more and more applications are expected to be available for use in a palm top computer. The computer program applications are typically a set of instructions (e.g., software code) that provides directions to the computer associated with performing certain tasks. Adding more applications to palm top computers usually results in user interfaces for accessing and activating the applications that are more congested and complicated.
The relatively small size of a typical handheld computer increases the difficulty of accomplishing a number of operations, including accessing and activating an application. Traditional palmtop computers typically require two hands to operate the PDA. One hand usually supports or holds the PDA while the other hand is utilized to perform selection functions including pushing buttons and pressing on a touch pad. Traditional hand held computers typically include push buttons dedicated to the activation of a particular application. To access and activate a new application the user has to push the button dedicated to the application activation. While dedicated application activation buttons permit some degree of ease of use they are not flexibly adaptable to implementations relying on a variety of applications since each dedicated button is usually limited to a single predefined application.
Traditional computer systems that attempt to add some flexibility for accommodating a variety of applications in a hand held computer typically require a combination of multiple input methods or mechanisms to select and activate an application. Hand held computers often include a home button that when pressed causes a number of application icons to appear on a display screen. Then another input mechanism such as a touch pad is utilized to select and activate a new application. While this application activation approach may provide some flexibility for adding a variety of applications to a hand held computer it still typically requires two hands to activate an application. One hand is typically required to hold the computer while the other hand selects an application by pressing the home button and then pressing a stylus against the icon. Application activation approaches that require the utilization of two different input mechanisms also typically require more manual manipulations that detract from the ease of use.
Traditional hand held computer application activation approaches often prevent the user from multitasking and performing other activities such as operating a cellular phone when opening new applications on a hand held computer. The ability to easily open new applications when talking on a telephone is often a very convenient advantage. For example, the ability to change from an address application which includes telephone numbers to easily open a calendar application to check availability of a meeting time once the telephone conversation has started is often very beneficial.
What is required is a system and method that facilitates one handed operation of a hand held computer including application access and activation. The system and method should assist ease of use and assist multitasking capabilities by the user.